First of all, you want to get a list of security programs that you want to implement and do research of new and old variability’s on the OS that you can change manually. First of all windows variability’s are now and not changed on XP to this day but I don’t know about Vista is. UPNP (Universal Plug & Play), Windows Raw Sockets, Windows Messenger Service (NOT MSN), Windows MICE Detection, DECOM Modulator (Taming Windows’ Dangerous DCOM / RPC System), Also, you should try some free programs from GRC.com (Gibson Research Center) (Steve Gibson) to get rid of all the variability’s listed above. And other programs such as

Windows XP Critical Variability fix

< Patch Work (Finds holes in windows that hackers used and holes found that can be used)

Securable (finds how secure your CPU is and vendibilities in 32 or 64 bit version of windows and variability’s in motherboard)

Windows MICE Detection

Noshare/Letshare(allows or does not allow NetBIOS traffic on local network )

Or you can also add

Secunia (finds software on the PC that has vendibilities and also your operation system, also free for home users but businesses have to pay a small fee.)

MSAL (Microsoft Security Assessment Tool) (this gives you a survey you answer to see how secure your network or PC security is.)